The far-left outlet ProPublica set out to publish a cheap hit piece on Defense Secretary-nominee Pete Hegseth and ended up getting schooled, but there is a larger story behind the scenes about what appears to be an effort inside the Department of Defense to sandbag Hegseth.

Wednesday morning, Pete Hegseth posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that ProPublica, a fringe-left outlet that claims "investigative journalism" as its stock-in-trade, was about to publish a false allegation against him. He did a pre-emptive strike by releasing the receipts.

We understand that ProPublica (the Left Wing hack group) is planning to publish a knowingly false report that I was not accepted to West Point in 1999.

Here’s my letter of acceptance signed by West Point Superintendent, Lieutenant General Daniel Christman, US Army. pic.twitter.com/UOhOVZSfhJ

— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) December 11, 2024

We understand that ProPublica (the Left Wing hack group) is planning to publish a knowingly false report that I was not accepted to West Point in 1999.

Here’s my letter of acceptance signed by West Point Superintendent, Lieutenant General Daniel Christman, US Army.

The acceptance letter makes it clear that Hegseth was admitted to West Point.

Reading is important. pic.twitter.com/5etc1OFOzQ

— streiff (@streiffredstate) December 11, 2024

The honcho at ProPublica tried to put the best face on the humiliation of having one of their investigative masterpieces demolished in a single tweet.

Hegseth has said that he got into West Point but didn’t attend.

We asked West Pt public affairs, which told us twice on the record that he hadn’t even applied there.

We reached out. Hegseth's spox gave us his acceptance letter.

We didn't publish a story.

That's journalism. https://t.co/TceZdglkmL

— Jesse Eisinger (@eisingerj) December 11, 2024

Hold that thought.

I've followed the Hegseth story pretty closely, other than a couple of stray, in passing, references to him having been accepted at the US Military Academy but declined in favor of Princeton, nearly all stories about Hegseth's relationship with West Point involve an axe and a drummer from West Point's marching band.

video of the day:
sec of defense nominee pete hegseth almost killing someone with an axe on live tv pic.twitter.com/WmrBjyyCSI

— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) November 13, 2024

Why would anyone assume someone would lie about being admitted to West Point after being admitted to a much more prestigious institution?

If Eisinger is to be believed, stay with me, I know that's a stretch, things were slow at ProPublica, so they set out to investigate some obscure story. They contacted the West Point public affairs office twice and were told both times that Hegseth did not attend. Eventually, Hegseth provided proof, and they killed the story.

10/ We went back to West Point. They apologized.

An Army spokesman wrote: pic.twitter.com/HFN76mOSOh

— Jesse Eisinger (@eisingerj) December 11, 2024

I think there is another way to read this story.

Someone in the USMA public affairs office contacted ProPublica and told them that Hegseth had never applied. I say that because nowhere in Eisinger's self-congratulatory, pat-myself-on-the-back, "this is journalism, by golly" X thread does he show us either the original inquiry by ProPublica or either of the two alleged negative responses by USMA staff. I think the reason for that is because the emails will show that a USMA employee reached out with the smear.

The second part of the story that makes no sense is that applications for admission are not public records in the sense that you can divulge them without a FOIA request. Even with a FOIA request, the Privacy Act of 1974 should have prevented the release of any information about Hegseth's declined offer of admission to West Point. Releasing information that someone applied for and was not accepted or declined admission without the subject's consent is simply illegal.

Nothing about the process in this story makes sense. What does make sense is that a person or persons at West Point decided they could claim Hegseth had never been accepted into the academy, Hegseth would have no proof he had been admitted, and it would be a he-said, she-said story, or, in the case of ProPublica, a he-said they/them-said story.

Given what we've seen about leftist ideology taking hold of West Point, there is nothing mildly shocking about a member of the staff there deciding they could take down Hegseth with a story he couldn't disprove.

As I noted before, the vested interests in the Pentagon fear Hegseth because he is coming in to upset the status quo (The Pentagon's DEI Mafia Has Set Their Sights on Saving Themselves From Pete Hegseth). What he's going through now is minor compared to what awaits him when he starts going after the fraud, waste, and abuse practiced by the behemoth defense contractors.